Author
Topic: Can proteins ingested by a mother reach the baby in her breast milk? (Read 3278 times)

I have a friend in the office here who is breast-feeding an infant. She says that she can't eat dairy products because the milk proteins would pass from her digestive tract into her breast milk and cause an allergic reaction in her young son (who had been suffering from bloody stools prior to her altering her diet).

This sounds a bit like Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome-- but my understanding is that FPIES is the result of infants being directly exposed to foods not to their residuals in breast milk. Further, the idea that protein in a mothers diet could cross into breast milk contradicts my understanding of digestion and glandular secretion. Although I can understand how other dietary components could find their way into breast milk and thus affect a babys digestion, aren't proteins too big to get into breast milk in the way my friend believes they do?

The Naked Scientists® and Naked Science® are registered trademarks.
Information presented on this website is the opinion of the individual contributors
and does not reflect the general views of the administrators, editors, moderators,
sponsors, Cambridge University or the public at large.